Nothing can dampen the process of falling in love quite like a bad kiss.

That first kiss that you've imagined over and over in your head to be nothing short of perfection. A teeny-tiny orgasmic lip lock.

But then, as you bob your head to go in for the kill, lips pursed in anticipation of making your dreamy kiss a reality, you're met with a soggy mouth full of disappointment. The dream is shattered, rose-tinted spectacles shaken and blurred.

It really has been a while since I enjoyed some decent lip action - a kiss that gave me butterflies in my tummy, and made my right leg kick back with a pointy toe.

I can't help but wonder whether this has something to do with the fact that I have limited my lip-locking over the past few years exclusively to Chinese men...

Of course it would be uncouth of me to generalize; just because the Asian men that I've kissed came at me like a starving man at a giant ice cream cone, it doesn't mean that every single man in Asia would do the same.

However, it does pose the question as to whether different nationalities have their own preferred kissing styles.

I mean, just because I don't get off at being suffocated by a kiss, it doesn't mean to say that another girl somewhere else in the world might think it totally hot.

Most western girls in China have at some point met a Chinese guy who rattled her cage, got her heart racing, and made her question everything she thought she knew about her preferences and types.

Pre-China, 99.9% of my non-Chinese female friends never expected to find themselves entangled in a love affair with a Chinese man. But somewhere along the way, there have been dalliances and romances with the locals, and I'd be lying if I said that many of them ended happily ever after.

Having 3 failed relationships with Chinese men under my belt, I'm ready to return to the security I'll find in the big hairy arms of a western man.

But having only dated Chinese men (and one wretched Korean) over the past 5 years, I'm feeling quite out of touch.

As many of you ladies will know by now, dating Chinese men and dating western men require two very different game plans, strategies, and, let's say, styles. And here are just a few of them...

The first time I realized that living in China had changed me, was when I was back in the UK visiting family and friends a couple of years ago. My best friend had dragged me out on a double date with two very nice English men. When one of the guys asked me if I'd like a drink, I replied "Ohh just a glass of hot water for me please."

An exchange of glances between him and his friend, and a sharp elbow in the rips from my friend, and I knew I'd said something 'weird'. But the thing is, I really did just fancy a glass of hot water.


If you've never tried it before, let me tell you, there is nothing more refreshing or hydrating than a glass of warm water. Still think I'm weird? Well, there was a time when I would think me weird too.